(Not in Abraham De Moivre
Setting the Stage for Classical Probability and Its Applications
- Add to cart
- Price:
$45.00$40.50 - Hardback: 266 pages
- Also available in e-Book
- Published: October 2011
- ISBN: 978-1-56881-349-3
- Publisher: A K Peters/CRC Press
Sharing & Social Bookmarking:
Question about this product?
- By David R. Bellhouse.
Extensively researched, this book traces the life and work of Abraham De Moivre as well as the state of probability and statistics in eighteenth-century Britain. It is the first extensive biography of De Moivre and is based on recently discovered material and translations, including some of De Moivre’s letters.
The book begins with discussions on De Moivre’s early life in France and his initial work in pure mathematics with some excursions into celestial mechanics. It then describes his fundamental contributions to probability theory and applications, including those in finance and actuarial science. The author explores how De Moivre’s wide network of personal and professional connections often motivated his research. The book also covers De Moivre’s contemporaries and his impact on the field. Written in a clear, approachable style, this biography will appeal to historians and practitioners of the art of probability and statistics in a wide range of applications, including finance and actuarial science.
Table of Contents
Early Life in France
Points of Connection
Getting Established in England
Scotica Mathematica
The Breakthrough: De Mensura Sortis
A Newtonian Intermezzo
Miscellanea Mathematica
The Doctrine of Chances and the Doctrine Disputed
Doctrinal Dissemination and Further Development
De Moivre as Teacher
Life Annuities
The Decade of the Doctrine Enhanced
The Two Thomases
Old Age
Footnotes
Bibliography
Reviews
This is a very thorough biography of Abraham De Moivre. The author (a Canadian professor specializing in the history of statistics and actuarial science) has clearly done a lot of research, including an in-depth study of De Moivre’s correspondence with his contemporaries. In addition to biographical details, the book provides an overview of the mathematics developed by De Moivre. … a very readable book.
—Rudi Penne and Paul Levrie, WeetLogs.SciLogs.be, April 2012
This is a very scholarly piece of work, with many references to original documents … Bellhouse’s book should fascinate most academics in that, beside going with the uttermost detail into De Moivre’s contributions to probability, it uncovers the way (mathematical) research was done in the 17th and 18th century England … Another fascinating aspect of the book is the way English (incl. De Moivre) and Continental mathematicians fought and bickered on the priority of discoveries. … this is a highly pleasant and easily readable [book] on the career of a major mathematician and one of the founding fathers of probability theory. David Bellhouse is to be congratulated on the scholarship exhibited by this book and on the painstaking pursuit of all historical documents related with De Moivre’s life.
—Christian Robert on his blog, March 2012
Author/Editor Biography
David Bellhouse is a professor in the Department of Statistical and Actuarial Sciences at the University of Western Ontario. His research interests include statistical theory and methods as well as the history of probability, statistics, actuarial science, and mathematics.
